... was the official name of the presentation I was forced watch today. It has left me miffed/ticked/pissed off (select one) for reasons others might find, well, slightly dumb.
But first, some background:
One thing you guys don't know about me is that I have a mild form of cerebral palsy, technically called "spastic diplegia", or Little's disease. (Lil' spazzy is an awesome rapper name, should I ever choose to enter that field...) It is a physical disability.
Keep that in mind...
I was placed in special education starting in elementary school because I needed some physical therapy, but this has led to "annual reviews", and uninformed teachers "Treating... me... li-ke... I... am... slow." Over the years it has annoyed me that apparently there is a permanent asterisk next to my name that says "*: SPECIAL NEEDS!" And no one bothers to check for what disability. This presentation consisted of "local learning disabled individuals sharing their experiences in the the workplace". I will sum this up with one simple question:
Have you ever met someone who is just a little bit too... perky? Peppy? Overcaffeinated? Someone who has likely been a motivational speaker for kindergartners?
Everyone. In. That. Room.
Overall message: See? Even you people can be accepted as a valuable member of society! Seeee? A fine message, but it was just... so... degrading? Not exactly humiliating, but there was just something not right about the tone of the "non-learning disabled" leading the presentation.
I can't even describe why I'm particularly mad... I shouldn't even be ranting about my personal... issues. But, if I may ask a question, do I sound disabled via-blog? Must any disability be part of how I am judged? I guess I'm mad because I can't stand being lumped together with everyone else. Even my other friends who have dyslexia, or Asberger's thought it wasn't really that helpful. We all are different people with ABILITIES. We know we can be awesome, unique individuals with jobs we're probably good at. Wonderful programs exist to even help people with mental disabilities, that would have been shipped to the asylum 70 years ago get jobs.
I know you guys probably don't have opinions on this, or even given it much thought, but I just had to express in some way. This helps knowing it's out there somewhere in cyberspace. If you don't want to reply to this, fine. But don't pretend these things do not happen.
(Not that you, the marvelous Alex and Vita, would, but they do. I'm speaking more to them.)
2 comments:
Slightly off-topic, but I read an awesome (fictional) book about a girl with cerebral palsy a few years ago. I don't remember it very well, but it was GOOD. I'll have to find out what it was called as I've been wanting to read it again ... :P
Anyways. Grr I hate when people act like that. I agree that the overly-perky, overly-cheerful attitude can seem degrading. They have good intentions, of course, but if it's not a big deal, then why are you acting like it is? (Not YOU, you, but you-who-are-motivational-speakers-you.) It's like, I know they're trying to be helpful, but sometimes they seem to add insult to the injury, as it were.
I know yours is a physical disabilty, not a mental one, but I think it kind of fits in here ... what I find to be extremely annoying/stupid/etc is when people act like Down Syndrome/Dyslexia/etc is the same as being mentally retarded. I'm sorry, I don't know how it's "officially" classified, but as far as I'm concerned IT'S NOT THE SAME THING. Did they not watch America's Next Top Model two seasons ago (okay, so I don't really watch it either, but WHATEVER)? Did they not see Heather (I think that was her name), the girl with Asberger's, function like - GASP! - a human being? Did they not hear how she GOES TO COLLEGE, like many SMART PEOPLE do?
To answer your question, no, you don't sound "disabled" through your blogs. I don't see how having a physical disability affects how you write, and I don't know how you can judge someone's mental capacity via blog, regardless. There are some perfectly "normal" people who can't write for the life of them and there are people with *insert disorder here* who are amazingly talented.
:)
Sounds like suck.
I get what you're saying about the presentation. It sounds like... well.. suck. Nobody likes labels (or at least I don't, I guess I can't speak for the entire human population), and it is not fun to be grouped in with a whole bunch of people, that you might not even be that similar with at all.
I don't know what I'm trying to say. I guess I just sympathize. Some people need to take public speaking seminars to appear sane and relatable. As Vita said, good intentions, but I would say a fairly bad execution.
Why can't we just treat everyone like a NORMAL person? Maybe there wouldn't be a problem integrating special needs people into the workplace if we just called them people, instead of shuffling them to the side and labeling them, and treated them with respect and kindness.
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